ROCKFORD — Rockford School Superintendent Ehren Jarrett and Park District Executive Director Tim Dimke teamed up at Magic Waters Waterpark Thursday morning to make good on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, an effort that’s raised an estimated $6.4 million so far for ALS.

Jarrett and Dimke joined the thousands of people across the country who can be seen online getting doused with buckets of ice water to help bring awareness and raise funds for ALS. Justin Timberlake’s done it. So have Jimmy Fallon and The Roots, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine, Mark Zuckerburg, Ethel Kennedy, Martha Stewart, dozens of celebrity athletes, politicians, CEOs, morning show hosts, and lots and lots of everyday people.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also is known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, after the legendary New York Yankees first baseman who died of ALS in 1941. It’s a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting the brain and spinal cord. Those afflicted gradually lose muscle control, including the ability to eat, speak and breathe. There is no cure. Life expectancy is two to five years after diagnosis.

The challenge works like this: You grab a camera and start taping yourself. You state that you’re doing the ALS Ice Bucket challenge and you name other people you’re challenging to do it. They have to do it in the next 24 hours. If they do it, they donate $10 to an ALS organization of their choice. If they don’t, they have to donate $100 to an ALS organization. Then, you dump a bucket of ice water over your head and post the video challenge.

Many of the participants are donating large amounts of money even if they do the challenge, said Julia Sharpe, the executive director of the ALS Association of Greater Chicago.

From July 29, when the challenge really started taking off on social media, Sharpe said, through Thursday, the ALS Association raised $7.6 million. That compares with $1.2 million raised in the same two-week period last year. The association logged 146,000 new donors so far this month. Donations help fund research and provide care for ALS patients, and they just keep pouring in.

Pete Frates, a 29-year-old former Boston College baseball player with ALS, is credited with starting the fundraising phenomenon when he posted his challenge on Twitter.

“The monies are great, but the awareness being generated is unbelievable, as well, and a source of joy for the ALS community,” Sharpe said. “A lot of people don’t know what ALS is. The families often wonder why they don’t have more of a voice.”

Page 2 of 2 - Rockford didn’t have an annual ALS walk until last year when Kari Vincer, a fourth-grade teacher at Maple Elementary School in Loves Park, worked with the Chicago office to organize one.

Vincer lost her grandfather, father and sister to ALS.

The ALS Association of Greater Chicago serves a 71-county area across northern Illinois, northwest Indiana and central Illinois. There are about 600 ALS patients in the region.

Vincer didn’t know about the Ice Bucket Challenge until Thursday, when people started asking her whether she had seen any of the videos. She hadn’t. But she thinks the movement is great.

“It’s exciting,” Vincer said. “Public awareness is a powerful thing. It’s important for people to know about ALS.”

The challenge hit home for Dimke, too. He lost his older brother to ALS in 1988.

“He was just 40 years young, a super guy,” Dimke said. “I think about him every day.”

As for the challenge itself: It’s not so bad, Dimke and Jarrett said.

“It’s pretty cold, but it’s not the Polar Plunge where you’re out there and it’s 20 degrees,” Dimke said.

“It was over super quickly,” Jarrett added. “It’s a lot of fun and a very worthwhile cause.”

Jarrett challenged Jefferson High School Principal Don Rundall and East High School Principal Patrick Enright. Dimke challenged his six deputy directors and a senior manager.

Jefferson students Alexis Ridings and Nick Kluzak had the honor of pouring a bucket of ice water over Rundall at the school today.

“It was about half ice and half water, and it sat for a while, too, so it was pretty cold,” Rundall said.

And the challenge continues.

After getting drenched, Rundall announced his nominees: Auburn High School Principal Devon LaRosa, Guilford High School Principal Janice Hawkins and Heidi Houy, principal of Roosevelt Community Education Center.